PB Kennel Club ready for large WSOP circuit crowds

Ante Up Magazine columnist "Big" Dave Lemmon reports that the Palm Beach Kennel Club has plans in place in case there's a large walk-up crowd for its first event -- which brought chaos (well, as much chaos as the poker world can muster) because so many players waited until the last minute.

Lemmon notes that two starting days and a Florida-record (at the time) of 877 players marked the inaugural World Series of Poker Circuit series in 2011. Event 1 in 2102 exploded to 2,607 players over the three starting days, "and still many people were unhappy as hundreds waited until the last second to enter and were turned away," he wrote. The tournament had a $1 million guarantee.

The kennel club this year will have four opening sessions for the $580 buy-in opening tournament, each starting at 11 a.m. Feb. 13-16 and with 75 tables plus alternates. Lemmon says this PBKC event could surpass the record 3,001 entrants at Horseshoe Hammond in 2011. Some ticket-selling glitches will be avoided by selling entries right up until the start of the event, with no seats held back. Players can go to the PBKC website and purchase tickets.

“As always, we implore players not to wait until the last second,” was the quote from Noah Carbone, PBKC’s director of poker.

A numbered ID bracelet system will be in place to avoid the long lines and pushing/shoving that emerged on the final opening day last time. Twice as many poker chips have been ordered for this event to correct some confusion that occurred with different-colored chips.

“We’ve been taking many phone calls asking how we are getting prepared, and when people hear about the steps we are taking, they are pretty happy,” said Carbone, looking forward to the 12 WSOPC events in 12 days, Lemmon wrote.

The series’ $1,675 main event will have two opening sessions, at noon and 7 p.m. on Feb. 23.